Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Quotes are word for word from the source.

• Adaptive income volatility

  “someone who has a little volatile income is more adaptive.”

  Our noteTaleb compares the resilience of freelancers or entrepreneurs to salaried employees.

• Inverse role models

  “Also, I find inverse role models, people you don't want to be like when you grow up. [laughter] You pick someone and you go with it. You have an instinct to know what you don't want to look like.”

  Our noteTaleb explains his method for personal development by observing who he does not want to emulate.

• Social media dynamics

  “Social media is bringing us back to a naturalistic environment because, say, in Athens, what was the newsroom? The newsroom was the barbershop - you go in, you give information, and you take information.”

  Our noteTaleb explains why social media mimics ancient human information exchange.

• Rewarding impossible thinking

  “We should reward people, not ridicule them, for thinking the impossible.”

  Our noteHe argues for valuing unconventional foresight in a world of unexpected events.

• Data overload

  “The more data we have, the more likely we are to drown in it.”

  Our noteHe warns about the dangers of over-relying on large datasets for inference.

• The turkey problem

  “Consider that the feeling of safety reached its maximum when the risk was at the highest!”

  Our noteHe uses the turkey analogy to show how past safety can mask imminent disaster.

• Symmetry of incentives

  “No incentives without disincentives: capitalism is about rewards and punishments, not just rewards.”

  Our noteTaleb discusses the necessity of accountability in economic systems.

• Definition of wealth

  “You are rich if and only if money you refuse tastes better than money you accept.”

  Our noteTaleb defines wealth through the power of refusal.

• Non-competitive life

  “You have a real life if and only if you do not compete with anyone in any of your pursuits.”

  Our noteTaleb argues that true living avoids the trap of competition.

• Clarity and courage

  “Mental clarity is the child of courage, not the other way around.”

  Our noteTaleb explains that clear thinking requires the bravery to face truth.

• Ethics and profession

  “Ethical man accords his profession to his beliefs, instead of according his beliefs to his profession.”

  Our noteTaleb discusses the alignment of work and values.

• Ethical integrity

  “If you see fraud and do not say fraud, you are a fraud.”

  Our noteTaleb discusses the moral obligation to speak out against dishonesty.

• Superiority of Experience

  “The knowledge we get by tinkering, via trial and error, experience, and the workings of time, in other words, contact with the earth, is vastly superior to that obtained through reasoning”

  Our noteTaleb explains why practical tinkering beats pure theoretical reasoning.

• The barbell approach

  “So long as you separate these two, you have a barbell. This is this, and this is that, and that's that, and you separate the two of them, then you will avoid the problems we have.”

  Our noteExplaining how a barbell strategy applies to separating different types of knowledge.

• Risk mitigation methods

  “You mitigate your risk either by understanding the risk, which is very large, or by having a lawyer who puts in a clause to protect you from that event if it happens.”

  Our noteExplaining the difference between knowing a risk and protecting oneself from its effects.